After some time has passed…
The room was large, circular, and full of ponies, most of whom Flicker had never seen or met before. He found himself in the middle, surrounded on all sides, and quite uncomfortable with the whole thing. Seating was arranged in rings, each ring just a little higher than the one in front of it. In the highest positions were three ornamental chairs… thrones? They sat in the highest spot, beneath a mural of the sun and moon.
In the middle of the three thrones sat Princess Luna. To her left was Shining Armor, and to her right was Prince Gosling. One of the two High Crowns of Equestria, the Royal Pony Sisters, the Defender of the Realm, and the Lord Mayor of Canterlot. To Flicker, this almost felt like a trial, and everything about this made him nervous.
At least he wasn’t alone. Sitting in a boxed off area close to the floor, close to where he was, he had those he loved. His mother, Twister Tracker, and his father, Buckeye Conker sat on a wooden bench together, holding one another, and Flicker knew that his sister, Knick-Knack, she was with Fluttershy. Beside his mother and father was Hennessy, looking better after his healing, and Piper, whose eyes were still a bit yellow, even after healing. Wicked Chandler also sat in the box, and he was reading through some briefing or something. Sitting together, subdued, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had kept their promise, and they were here, for Flicker.
Even more nerve wracking were the motion picture cameras. All of this was being filmed, a bit of history put on film and not just in books. Everything about this was a big deal, which did nothing to help Flicker’s nerves, even though he looked just fine on the outside. He wasn’t fine at all, but was miserable, grief stricken, and mourning.
“Good day, Mister Nicker. My name is Justice Good Reason. You are permitted a moment to laugh.” The Justice paused and an aide made a few adjustments to the amplification system to smooth out some of the feedback. “I am the Grand Chancellor of Canterlot, my authority is second only to the Lord Mayor. I apologise, Mister Nicker, that you had to be here today, but these are trying times.”
“It’s okay, sir,” Flicker said in a subdued voice, and he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to look at the chancellor or not.
“Call me Justice, please.” The chancellor gave Flicker a gentle smile. “Though, if it makes it easier, you may call me by my given name, Good Reason.”
Looking up at the chancellor, Flicker nodded.
Clearing his throat, the chancellor turned his head and looked around, then looked at Flicker once more. “Defender of the Realm, Shining Armor, will now give a brief statement about our purpose here today. Prince Shining Armor, if you please…”
Shining Armor rose from his seat, and not far away, Night Light, Shining Armor’s father, turned to look at his son. The Defender of the Realm seemed a bit nervous, but then again, everypony was nervous at the moment. The tension in the room was tangible, unpleasant, and so many ponies were armed to the teeth. Paranoia had become fashionable in Canterlot.
“I have no fancy words to offer, nor flowery words of comfort,” Shining Armor said to everypony, and his voice reverberated through the sound system. “A terrible thing has happened to the fair city of Canterlot. Many have died. Our enemy has entrenched themselves right below us. Today, with the fallen on our minds, we have come together in the hopes that a new order might be established, and that for once, we can come together in one accord. There is no place for partisan politics today, there should be no parties, or party interests, there are only survivors, and the interest of said survivors should be served.”
The room filled with murmuring and the rustling of bodies, which caused Flicker’s ears to twitch. The swell of sound had no distinct voice that he could hear, soft spoken words, words such as, “The Monarchists will always serve true to the Crown.” This was something that Flicker didn’t understand, the game of politics, but it seemed that he was now trapped in the quagmire of it.
When Shining Armor spoke again, the room quieted, though not completely, much to Shining Armor’s annoyance. “All of this infighting has to end. All of this quarreling. We are at war, and this division is giving aid to our enemy. For a brief moment, you put your troubles aside after the riots in the city, and you came together. Why can’t you do that now?”
“Because, many are seizing upon this moment to push their political agendas, while suggesting that anypony who has a difference of opinion is aiding the enemy,” one pony replied.
Scowling, Shining Armor stared at the pony who spoke for a short time. Then, in a powerful voice of oration, he made a short, brief statement. “Perhaps you’d like to continue this debate after the rats sack the city and seize control of our capital. I’m sure they will have a commitment to settling disputes in the fair and just manner that you are accustomed to.”
Flicker sensed that the words cut to the bone, and he saw a lot of ponies all around him flinching, as though they had been struck. The colt still didn’t understand why these voices of dissent were even allowed to exist, or why these disagreements, these acts of sedition were allowed to take place. So many of these soft, worthless individuals had never once faced a single moment of danger, and Flicker felt that the lot of them should be left down in the sewer until attitudes changed—or the rats had their way with them. Either way, the voices of dissent needed silencing.
“Flicker Nicker, your city needs you,” Shining Armor said, looking down at the colt in the middle of the room. “To put it simply, you have the right mark, the mark that showed up at the right time. Doctor Fancy Fiasco has gone on the record and has stated the following, that you are the Slayer. That is not in debate, thankfully. Everypony has agreed on that.”
“The Monarchists were the first to reach our own consensus,” a voice said, loud and clear. “Meanwhile, the Liberty Party had to drag their hooves, just like they always do, as if there was any doubt about the truth.”
For a moment, Shining Armor could be seen grinding his teeth together, and the corner of his eye twitched in a frightful manner. The tension in the room became palpable, and Flicker gained a keen awareness of just how many ponies were armed. Not just unicorns with dangerous magic, but pistols and swords as well. He had no weapons of his own at the moment—new sheaths were under construction—and he felt naked.
Sitting near Justice Good Reason, an old green earth pony stallion lit a cigar.
“I myself, I am having some doubts about this,” Flicker blurted out, and just about every eye in the room went wide. He licked his lips and felt his frogs go slick with sweat. His back ached and there was a cramp in his side. Princess Luna was looking at him, and Flicker felt the first pangs of panic. “My cutie mark… my mark… I don’t know how good it is for me. It’s caused me some problems. It threatens to consume me, to devour me. I’ve already almost lost myself to it. I don’t know if I am the hero that you want me to be. I’m ten years old and I’m still trying to figure everything out, and nothing in life makes sense right now, and I just lost everything… everything! And if I give into my mark, I could lose myself too. My sense of self is one of the few things I still have.”
The room filled with the sound of many voices, all of them speaking out at once. Ponies looked at Flicker, they looked at one another, some turned to look at Princess Luna, hoping for her interjection, but one baritone stallion’s voice rose above the others, and he had this to say:
“If you will not serve willingly, we will invoke the Articles of Militia and you will serve! This is not something that is open for—AAAAAAARGH! My mouf!”
The pony speaking was interrupted when the old green earth pony straight-legged him in the mouth with his hoof. Blood and teeth flew in parabolic arcs, and the old green earth pony puffed on his cigar while the pony punched in the mouth writhed on the floor, clutching at his face. Smirking, the old pony bent over a bit and wiped his bloody hoof on his victim, never once taking his eyes off of Flicker.
“Chesty, was that really necessary?” Shining Armor asked in a meek, but still somehow firm voice.
“Eh, don’t question your elders, welp,” Chesty replied, chomping on his cigar. Then, still looking Flicker in the eye, Chesty bowed his head. “Son, I am sorry about that. Try not to worry, colt, that won’t be happening. I’ll not allow it.”
A unicorn guard moved through the crowd, his golden armor flashing in the bright lights, and he came to the side of the pony punched in the mouth, or mouf, as the case may be. The thrashing, kicking pony was lifted, restrained, and carried out of the room, which was now in a state of shocked silence.
Justice Good Reason, scowling, looked around the circular chamber, shaking his head, and his sagging cheeks wibble-wobbled with his every movement. “Not much has been accomplished yet, but I think that everypony needs some fresh air. This session is now in recess, and please, for the love of the Princesses, will all of you try not to piss Chesty off? We don’t want a repeat of what just happened. Dismissed! Everypony go and cool off!”
Flicker welcomed the break from the hot lights, the loud sounds, and the tension in the room.
The sun was glorious as it shone down upon the city of Canterlot, and Flicker basked in its radiance, troubled though he was. His mother sat close by, torn between wanting to hug him and give him his equinal space. Conk, his father, was having a conversation with Hennessy, and both of them lay in the soft grass of the tiny lawn in front of the Canterlot City Hall. Piper lay on her back watching clouds through half-open eyes, and her front hooves were folded over her barrel.
In front of City Hall was a roundabout for traffic, and in the middle of the roundabout was a statue, a statue that bothered Flicker a great deal. A stone building was being constructed around the statue to house it, a chapel. The stone statue was a perfect representation of Flicker, and he didn’t like it, not one bit.
Even more uncomfortable was the fact that ponies were already praying at the base of the statue, even with the chapel unfinished. Several mares sat with their foals, heads bowed, praying, and Flicker already knew what these prayers were, prayers of safety, prayers of security, prayers of protection from the rats.
They were praying to him. Flicker didn’t like this, not at all, he did not approve, he was no great figure worthy of prayer. Perhaps more than anypony else, Flicker knew that he was just a screwed up colt. If anypony deserved a statue, it was Doctor Sterling. But the good doctor had died, and Flicker had lived, and with Flicker, hope had survived.
So much faith, so much belief, so much conviction was put into cutie marks.
It was astonishing, really, the powers that such marks held. Flicker had been asked to create an entirely new branch of the guard, a new order, and he had no idea of what to do. This was too much to deal with right now—but the city needed saving—right now. And the responsibility to do so seemed to fall upon his shoulders.
Even worse, the statue wasn’t him. It was faceless, maskless, it was the hollow pony that existed beneath the mask. The soft touch of his mother’s wing snapped him from his thoughts, and he stared ahead while she stroked his neck, grateful for her touch. There was a lot he wanted to say to her, but he didn’t know how. For now, his silence held, but he leaned into his mother’s soft, reassuring touch.
“They’re offering my son the title of ‘Baron,’ I’m so proud.” Twisty beamed and scooted closer to her son, seeing that he was receptive to her affection.
“Mother, it is just the lowest rank of peerage among the titled landowners,” Flicker replied while his mother slipped her wing around him. “It’s like getting a gold star on your school paper and nothing more.”
“Yeah, but Baron… Flicker, that is a hoof in the door! Don’t you realise how important this is?” Twisty, worried, pulled her son, now larger than her, closer to her, and rested her head against his cheek.
“Maybe I just don’t care.” Flicker closed his eyes and felt his mother go tense against him. “Maybe I don’t care right now. All of this happening, everything, all of these things being offered to me… I’d rather have Doctor Sterling back.”
“I know, son, I know.” Twisty took a deep breath and in a soft voice she said to her colt, “Doctor Sterling died to give you a future… to give this city a future. Doctor Sterling clearly placed his hope in you. I’d like to think that in his final moments, he must have been confident in knowing that he had taught you well. He trusted you to do the right thing, and gave you a chance to do it.”
Flicker listened to his mother’s words and felt a painful, throbbing lump manifest in his throat. He wanted to believe that she was right, he desperately wanted to take comfort in her words. Everypony had so much to say, everypony seemed to have some great insight into Doctor Sterling’s head, everypony seemed to know his every motivation, his every thought, and his every conviction. Most of the time, it just pissed Flicker off, but his mother’s words… he wished those were true.
His mother smooched him, and Flicker was consumed by warm-fuzzies.
Looking at the statue in the middle of the roundabout, Flicker thought about the word ‘enshrined.’ It echoed in his mind, bouncing around in his grey matter, and it terrified him. It bothered him that he had no choice in this matter—the ponies of Canterlot had made the decision for him, they had made their choice without his input, his opinion, his feelings.
Contagion, his nemesis, was enshrined, and so was Flicker. Was the outcome of their inevitable battle to be determined by the fervent, zealous prayers of their followers? Flicker could not even comprehend what was happening, what was being done to him. He wasn’t even an alicorn, or even an adult; he was a unicorn, and a colt. Alicorns had chapels and devoted, dedicated, devout followers.
Tearing his gaze away from the statue, Flicker looked at Piper. He wasn’t even titled yet, nothing was committed in ink, but she was already his first vassal, his first sworn follower. She had dragged out some dusty old book written in Ye Olde Canterlot and recited the ancient rites of fidelitas, the swearing of loyalty, unconditional, unwavering loyalty to a liege or monarch.
It seemed that feudalism was getting a revival in Equestria.